A method and system for scheduling appointments between a patient's schedule and the schedules of required resources in a hospital are disclosed in US 2002/0131572 A1. The system includes a server including a local memory, a client, and a database, with a patient schedule and a resource schedule being loaded from the database into the local memory for determining available times for the resource schedule. The method and system do not include management of medical devices.
An integrated medical device and healthcare information system is disclosed in US 2006/0173713 A1. The healthcare information system (HIS) includes a scheduling system for scheduling a medical procedure for a particular patient. A workflow management system communicates with a peripheral management system and with a data base, in order to create and schedule the patient workflow. Based on the diagnosis and treatment plan for an individual patient, medical devices are automatically pre-configured. The system does not include multi-resource planning as required for scheduling operating rooms.
According to a method and system for assignment, scheduling and notification as disclosed in US 2003/0149598 A1, patients are automatically assigned to at least one registered clinician, and event tasks are generated for the clinician. If the clinician is unavailable as determined by a scheme of priorities, the event task is assigned to another registered clinician. The clinicians are assigned mobile transceivers coupled to the system via known wireless networking protocols. Event tasks can be initiated by medication and procedure alarms, by patient monitoring devices or voice or position detection, or by lab-result availability. The system does not provide for multi-resource planning for scheduling operating rooms.
A method of optimal scheduling of a plurality of medical procedures by a plurality of surgeons in a set of operating rooms is disclosed in WO 97/25682. The scheduling is done and optimized based on required resources, including preferences and availabilities, and cost functions, taking into account the total cost associated with each feasible schedule. Optimization is activated 48 or 72 hours before the day of surgery, and variations between the optimal schedule and actual conditions in the operating rooms during that day may be accounted for in a revised schedule for the medical procedures during that day.
Known methods and systems provide schedules for tasks, processes, and resources in hospitals. Those schedules are optimized based on initial conditions, and may be adapted due to a particular alarm. However, processes in an operating room are particularly complicated due to the involvement of a multiplicity of personnel, devices, and contributory processes, such as device and patient preparation, medical data presentation etc. Moreover, OR planning is particularly susceptible to emergency situations arising from inside or outside the OR, or to changes enforced by conditions of patients or by other circumstances.
Therefore, it is the object of the present invention to provide a method and system for management of OR resources that includes multi-resource planning and permits an automatic adaptation of schedules to current requirements and situations.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a modular system for management of processes in or relating to an operating room, in particular in a hospital, that may include multi-resource planning and permit an automatic adaptation of schedules to current requirements and situations.